I understand the hesitancy to call them a legitimate high school football team, but with all of the big schools they have scheduled don't you think those schools would inquire about whether they plan on playing or not this year? Some of best in Ohio are on their schedule, so I would think that those schools would do their due diligence in making sure that they are still going to play or there are going to be some powerhouses that need another game to play. Again, this seems odd but nobody has backed out from playing them yet and rescheduled.

From the correspondence I’ve seen from the ADs, no, there hasn’t been much follow through from the ADs. Most don’t work this month. The ones playing “at” COF Academy conflict on where they will actually play. They follow up and the hitting the fan will probably start in august.

That’s correct, but they aren’t accredited either. The organization that accredits schools has nothing on them. Can check for yourself http://www.advanc-ed.org/

Correct. Sorry, wasn’t implying they were accredited. Typically, if a school is not chartered ( a simpler process) they won’t be accredited either. Although AdvancEd is not the only accrediting agency.

From the correspondence I’ve seen from the ADs, no, there hasn’t been much follow through from the ADs. Most don’t work this month. The ones playing “at” COF Academy conflict on where they will actually play. They follow up and the hitting the fan will probably start in august.

You'd think St. Edward would know better after getting ripped off by Hercules Sports Management a few years back.

Also, there are Twitter accounts for the academy and for the football program, which seem to be updated by 2 different people:

However, I don't get the overwhelming sense that the alleged founder, Jay Richardson, is actually involved (although he once retweeted something about COF and had a brief Twitter exchange with one of the alleged new coaches):

I know of two kids that are "going" to COF. They are both academically ineligible at their home HS. Not sure how that works...

They aren't an OHSAA school, so it wouldn't matter. My question is if i truly wanted to go to COF Academy, how would I apply? Website is bunk, no real contact info. you're telling me they had 2k+ students enroll when they don't even have an enrollment website? that stretches belief.

Friend of mine is a grad assistant at ODU and said COF Academy is indeed renting classroom space from ODU for the upcoming school year, but that they are only planning for 150-200 students at the location. Maybe they'll have other buildings, but if not, and making the big assumption that all of those students are boys, that'd place their enrollment in the D5/D6 neighborhood.

So they've rented classroom space but haven't had any type of organized football event (7on7, weight lifting, team meeting) that anyone knows of? They're two weeks away from two-a-days (doubt they have to follow OHSAA rules)...

Last that I heard, they expect the football team split to be 50/50 in-state vs out-of-state. Among the Ohio schools seeing defections to CoF are Bexley, Lakota West and Lima Shawnee. Most of their out-of-state players will be from the south and east coast.

In reply to post #113, well... my guess is that the people behind the CoF orchestration are doing most of the player attraction through showcases, camps and the broader college recruiting sphere. This is pretty likely, as the two primary people behind the football operations (not referring to Jay Richardson) have experience as recruiting coordinators. Right now, what I’m hearing on the vine, that’s more/less how they are getting players: recruiting them. It’s also not outside the realm of possibility they have a few players who came to the team on their own (or their guardian’s) venture.

It does surprise me to see some of the responses on here that keep calling this organization’s ability to field a team into question. Are they going to win a game? Probably not, honestly. They’ll take their beatings this year, as can be expected with any inaugural team (talent level be damned) given that none of the players have likely played alongside another before. Depth will probably be a concern, too. The other thing to consider is OHSAA-membership/eligibility is probably not an endgame for this organization. Their sustainability is going to be largely dependent on their ability to recruit. And, in case it isn’t obvious by now, the crowd of players they are particularly leaning on are kids who (for one reason or another) either won’t be NCAA-eligible upon high school graduation or kids that want to be a big fish in a little sea. That’s a pretty easy market for them to corner, because the kids that want to play for a community and have the complete high school experience aren’t going to attend this place.

No OHSAA team is going to play a team with post grad kids on their roster. It'd void their insurance in said games. You've named three schools where players are said to be coming from in Ohio. With your statement that there will be a 50/50 split that still leaves them a few short of being able to compete in an 8 Man League.

I have no problem with them going the Prep route and recruiting, it just appears the numbers aren't going to be there to play the schedule they have listed. And if they pull out of games this year, schools aren't going to schedule them in the future and the school will die before it was even born.

This isn't happening. And how does a student/player go there on their own if they can't even apply?

People seem to have "heard" a lot about a "school" that has no useful web site or Facebook page, or for the old-fashioned, a phone listing.

I have no problem being one of those people who have “ “heard” a lot about a “school”...”, because common sense, and the professional and personal respect I have for my colleagues in the prep & post-prep football scene, is enough to suggest to me that I shouldn’t be attaching their names online to a closely-followed thread about what is undoubtedly a very controversial, confusing and potentially volatile situation. Don’t get it twisted, I’m all for source criticism and whatnot, and I too find myself annoyed with “I heard” at times, but unless someone much closer to the situation (like, one of the coaches) is going to step up, sign up and post an update with their name attached to it, the entirety of this thread henceforth, until the season starts, will be anecdotes written as (and generally understood to be) hearsay.

As EagleFan mentioned earlier in this thread, the AD’s of the scheduled teams likely have their finger on the pulse on this one better than anyone in this thread does. Several of them probably already have established ‘drop dead’ dates, like “if you can’t prove that you have a team by date ‘x’, we’re cancelling on you.”